The Boxer
Artist
Erin Hooley
Title
The Boxer
Date
April, 2008
Publication, City
Standard Examiner, Hooper
Medium
Digital C-print
Collection
Permanent Collection
Accession #
2018.001.013
Caption
Dave Castillo warms up in the basement of the Scrap Yard event center in Ogden, Utah before a mixed martial arts cage match against John Walser. The fight community and culture has grown in Utah with the appearance of MMA specific gyms and frequent fight nights hosted by local promotional companies such as World Championship Full Contact, which arranged the Scrap Yard event.
In 2009, I began photographing the story of MMA fighters and culture in Utah as a personal challenge and adventure into shape, contrast and texture, and found suspense and determination, skin and muscle, pain and adrenaline, bitter defeat and tearful jubilation.
MMA is male-dominated and testosterone-driven, so part of the challenge for me as a woman has been accessing everything beyond the cage and tapping into the fighter psyche. What drives one to train for months, perfecting body and mind, only to step into the ring to punch, kick and choke an opponent into submission or risk pain, injury and humiliation?
The answer was in exploring the periphery: finding male and female fighters, young people new to the sport, spectators and people who teach mixed martial arts, to photograph both large events and aspiring fighters in small, dirty gyms.
In 2009, I began photographing the story of MMA fighters and culture in Utah as a personal challenge and adventure into shape, contrast and texture, and found suspense and determination, skin and muscle, pain and adrenaline, bitter defeat and tearful jubilation.
MMA is male-dominated and testosterone-driven, so part of the challenge for me as a woman has been accessing everything beyond the cage and tapping into the fighter psyche. What drives one to train for months, perfecting body and mind, only to step into the ring to punch, kick and choke an opponent into submission or risk pain, injury and humiliation?
The answer was in exploring the periphery: finding male and female fighters, young people new to the sport, spectators and people who teach mixed martial arts, to photograph both large events and aspiring fighters in small, dirty gyms.